Hogwarts: Sirius Black
by martinaferro
Summary: This story follows Sirius Black in his sixth year at Hogwarts. Will he find love? Will drama follow him? Will he make new friends? Will he follow James's lead and start acting responsibly too? Features all of the Marauders.
1. One Month In

There are more gossipers than Sirius Black could count on both his hands and feet at Hogwarts and, obviously, more than half of what the nosy bullshitters said wasn't true. Usually what he hears doesn't bother him at all; but there are so many lies that sometimes irk him and make him want to stand up on the Gryffindor table and correct the bastards in front of everyone while they whisper to their friends about how 'Sirius Black had a threesome with his brother and a seventh year Slytherin'. Actually, no – he'd rather stand infront of James Potter's favourite seat on the table and yell in his good-for-nothing face what a complete imbecile he is for even thinking that there is a possibility of 'Sirius shagging Lily Evans' - and if there was - that he would actually take it.

"It's not his fault, Sirius. He overheard someone talking about you and Lily shagging and he believed it. You know how James is." Remus Lupin, one of Sirius's best friends, said while apprehensively chewing on the side of a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean at the end of Sirius's bed.

"This has happened hundreds of times, though" Sirius replied, stubbornly. "You'd think he would start trusting me after I've already told him I don't want to shag or do anything with Evans a million times! He isn't even going out with her – she hates his guts." Remus spat out a bean he'd been chewing on in disgust and it landed on one of Peter's dirty socks. Sirius continued, "plus, I've never had sex. Why would James think I'd want Lily to be my first? He's got trust issues and he needs to sort them out."

"Ergh! What the hell was that? Argh, that tasted like… I don't even know but that was so nasty. Anyway, if you don't want James to believe the rumours then stop flirting with her. Want one?" Remus threw an orange coloured bean at Sirius before he even had a chance to reply.

"I don't flirt with her because I like her; I do it so James doesn't feel bad about getting rejected every time, you know. Because if he sees that she rejects me as well as him then we're both in it together. I don't even do it that often - I just do it when I see him beginning to spit out a stupid, cheesy and non-effective chat-up line." Sirius bitterly put the bean in his mouth. "James should actually be thanking me, not a lot of people sacrifice their dignity for their best friends like I've been doing so far - mmm, pizza!" Remus snorted, Sirius continued, "my intentions are friendly and truly harmless."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever had the displeasure of hearing come out from your mouth in my entire life, and that's saying something! How do you expect James to figure that one out?" Sirius shrugged, took another bean and chucked it in his mouth.

"Smart guy, innit?" Sirius finally said.

"He'd have to be able to read your mind to figure out your 'true, friendly and harmless intentions'." Remus finger quoted his last words and Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Blueberry! I'm getting good ones."

The dormitory door opened and Peter, who was holding a long parchment, a book and a quill, came strutting in followed by James. Peter nodded his head towards them as a greeting and said, "I've finally finished my potions essay. I was sitting downstairs with Eudora 'cos she was helping me but then Cain came along and I'd only done half of it. So guess what I done, I went to the library and found James there!" Sirius raised his eyebrows and turned his head to face James who was topless and heading to the bathroom.

"And what made the great James Potter find his way to the library?" Remus asked sounding amused.

"Quidditch." James said, and shut the door without even turning around. Sirius clenched his jaw trying his mighty best to prevent himself from opening his mouth to shout at the git. He got up and walked downstairs to the common room. If James would still be acting like a stingy git the next morning, he'd say something; but if he'd cooled down over the night then he wouldn't say anything.

Sirius sat down on the puffy pink chair by the window that overlooked the Quidditch pitch which was currently invaded by Hufflepuffs on sticks – he was surprised they even had a team so early in October. Sirius leaned back on the chair and turned his head to look at who else was in the common room at twenty past ten in the evening. A few seventh years, fourth years and Lily Evans. She looked like she was finishing off another homework assignment and knowing her, it was probably given to her today and due next week. Sirius got up and began walking to her, she hadn't notice him approaching because if she had then she would've probably huffed and pulled an 'I don't want you here' face at him. He took a chair from a random table, dragged it to Lily's one and sat down. She looked up at him and sighed, Sirius noticed that she had bags under her eyes. "I don't have time to deal with you right now, please leave." She said, and Sirius smiled graciously.

"How fine it is to be in your company, too, Lily Evans. I'd love if you greeted me like that more often, I do love hearing you compliment me so much." He replied in a sarcastic tone. Lily gave a short snort and resumed writing on her parchment while Sirius continued speaking. "Don't worry, you don't need to deal with me for too long. I'll do the talking and you do the listening." He said, "What is it with you?" Lily continued writing on her piece of parchment and when Sirius didn't elaborate on his question, she looked up.

"What?" she asked.

"Out of all the girls James could fancy at Hogwarts, he chooses you. Why would he choose you? It's just stupid. You don't look twice at him, you hate him, you don't reply to him when he speaks to you, you don't even like Quidditch! You don't care enough to see the good in him and it just seems that you act coldly to him out of spite" Sirius brought his head down into his hands slightly dramatically, "you've changed James Potter. He went to the library today; we agreed to not visit the library at all in third year. That's out-of-bounds!" Lily finally gave up finishing her homework and was trying to keep a straight face while watching Sirius go through his friendship crisis. He then looked up at her, "at least talk to him. You don't have to like him, just acknowledge his presence."

"Is this because of that rumor that has been going around?" Sirius nodded and Lily continued, "I think one of the Ravenclaw's made it up after they found out I got the highest results out of the whole school in our OWLs last year, they were looking at me funny all day and in transfiguration and I could have sworn I saw one laughing at me" she said. Sirius frowned.

"That's besides the point. Listen, Evans, mine and Potter's friendship is on the edge and you're the cause of it." Lily looked offended. "Make him dislike you or just agree to go out on one date, tell him you didn't do anything with me-"

"Hey, I didn't do anything. If you and Potter can't get over your made-up drama then that isn't my problem." She packed up her things, said 'goodnight' and left. Sirius mumbled 'fierce' under his breath. _Maybe I was a bit too harsh_, he thought while looking around the common room once more.

It was October: it had been three months since Sirius ran away from his home and joined the Potter's. Everybody at Hogwarts and their uncle knew about what had happened to Sirius during the summer holidays and he'd never felt so exposed in his life - he was basically an open book. He got looks of sympathy from Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs passing by whilst Gryffindors 'whoop'ed and yelled 'saviour', but Slytherins would pass him and shout things like 'traitor' or 'mudblood lover'. On two occasions already he'd been so fed up he'd got himself into phyisical fights. He would have done a whole lot more if his friends hadn't been there to stop him.

"Oi, Sirius!" shouted Frank Longbottom, a seventh year student. Sirius and Frank met right after Sirius got sorted into Gryffindor. On the day of Sirius' sorting, every student in the Great Hall sat quietly as he walked proudly toward the Gryffindor table: not even the Slytherin table managed to let out a short 'boo' due to the utter shock on their faces. Frank was the first Gryffindor to stand up and clap, welcoming Sirius into Gryffindor. Soon after many other Gryffindor's were welcoming Sirius into their table and he sat happily by Frank.

"Yeah?" he shouted back, without looking behind him to see what Frank wanted. Frank threw himself onto the chair opposite Sirius and began speaking in a hushed voice, "next week Saturday I want to go to Hogsmede." Sirius raised his eyebrows.

"Oh really, angel boy?" he replied, smirking. Frank didn't look impressed, Sirius continued. "What?" he asked, "can't I be surprised that the Perfect Prefect wants to sneak out of the school grounds? Why not this week Saturday? Why are we being so specific?" he ask.

"Because I need to-"

"No." Sirius said firmly.

"What!" Frank said loudly. People began turning towards them so he lowered his tone and asked, "why?"

"Because, Frankie dear, if I recall correctly: the last time we sneaked out of the castle to go to Hogsmede we got caught and when your mother found out you were with me, she beat me with her umbrella in-front of everyone on the train platform. I'll sneak out to go to Hogsmede with anyone but you" he finished. Frank laughed.

"Whatever. I'll ask someone else" Frank replied in a defeated tone and got up. While he was walking up the stairs to get to his room he shouted loudly for the remaining people in the common room to hear, "by the way, Sirius, wash yourself: you absolutely stink!" The rest of the common room turned to him with disgusted looks on their faces. Katy Jamesons, a fourth year girl, muttered, 'ew!' Sirius turned to her politely asked her if she wanted to "have the honour of smelling the mouth-watering pilose armpit he'd combed only a few hours ago" and she ran to her dormitory. Frank and Sirius always bantered together, Sirius felt as though he was the older brother he'd never had.

At quarter to eleven, when the Hufflepuff Quidditch team started leaving, he too got out of his seat and went back to his dormitory. He quietly walked in and got undressed into his pajamas and fell asleep like everyone else in the room.


	2. A Sad Saturday

It was a Saturday therefore Sirius found it highly appropriate to wake up later than usual and it seemed that his whole dormitory had silently fallen into the same agreement. However, at ten-thirty Cain McGrobbel – their fellow sixth-year Gryffindor – suggested going to the Great Hall to get some breakfast before it all disappeared. Everyone decided to get up and go except for Sirius: he wasn't hungry at all. "Come on Sirius, breakfast is good for you" Remus suggested, trying to hide the worry in his voice but Sirius heard it. He even saw James nodding in agreement– _at least he's acknowledging my presence today, maybe he's realised how stupid he was _– he thought,but they didn't convince him and so they left.

Sirius felt nostalgic today; it was terrible. He felt as though was host to a pit full of sadness in his stomach and it was slowly spreading to the rest of his body. He always tried to make everyone think that him running away from his parents' house wasn't a big deal for him and that he was doing fine: he managed to convince practically everyone except for Remus, James and Peter – they all knew better. After six years of being friends they could read each-other as though they were open books. Recently, they'd gone out of their way to make Sirius do activities and to keep his mind preoccupied. He was grateful for their actions but he just wanted someone to understand what he was going through.

Though Sirius never truly enjoyed his home environment due to the fact that his family was a bunch of nutters, he was definitely going to miss them. Yes: his family did verbally and physically abuse him but things hadn't always been like that. Before he got sorted into Gryffindor, he was his mother's sweetheart: "this is Sirius, my handsome, eldest son" was the way she'd introduce him to people. She payed extra attention to him and made sure she didn't accidentally hurt him. She'd always help him to look "presentable": this meant that she'd carefully run her fingers over his head to adjust his hair and that she would always gently smooth down his dress robes, and flick any dust off his robes. Before he was sorted into Gryffindor he'd sometimes catch his father beaming at him from a distance, telling other family members how "fast my boy's growing up".

Even then, however, his family was beginning to make him feel uncomfortable. He disagreed with over half of their ideologies but that didn't mean that he wouldn't miss the presence of a loving mother and a proud father. Sirius unfortunately underestimated the extent of how proud his father was.

When Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor he expected howlers the day after – mysteriously, none were sent. It wasn't until he went back home for Christmas that he truly saw his family for what they were: self-absorbed purebloods that wanted nothing to do with something that could potentially corrupt their family image, even if that was their own son. He thought his parents would only hate him for a week and then get over themselves, but that didn't happen. The first Christmas of his first year was the worst one, he felt as though his family had saved up all of their energy after they found out their son had been sorted into Gryffindor in September, and finally lashed out at him during that holiday. His father beat him like a house-elf whenever he made a mistake; they left him at home as if he were an embarrassment to the family whenever there was an important event; his own mother ordered the house-elf, Kreacher, to not cook for him. If it hadn't been for his brother, Regulus, then Sirius would have died of starvation every time he had to come back home.

Regulus was the one Sirius felt the most nostalgia towards. Even if his brother was sometimes pompous and always wanted to impress his parents, he was the only one in number 12 Grimmauld Place that actually cared for him. He would sneak Sirius food when he had none, he would tell Sirius everything his parents didn't, like "you're not disgusting and you're not a waste of space, if anyone is it's our good-for-nothing family". A tear fell out of Sirius' eye as he remembered how him and his brother would stay up together playing chess, talking about each-other's friends, telling one another stories. He still had a strong relationship with his brother but his parents had forbidden Regulus from even making eye contact with Sirius, so it would never be the same again between the two. He quickly wiped the tear off his face but others started falling soon after. _Stop, _Sirius thought to himself,_ crying isn't going to make your brother come back. You're mother and father hate you, and you need to get over it. _Sirius took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He just thought it wasn't fair: everyone he knew had a family that cared for them except for him. He would do anything to have parents like Mr and Mrs Potter who followed James around as though he was a lost puppy, he would do anything to have a mother like Mrs Longbottom who made sure Frank wouldn't even put a toe out of line because she cared so much about his education and his future.

When Sirius finally managed to wipe all tears off his face he promised himself that he'd never even give his parents another thought in his whole life. He got up and went to meet his friends in the Great Hall, except they weren't there. He sighed out of frustration and sat down on a spot with lots of food in front of it. He extended out a hand to get a croissant when the food on the table suddenly all disappeared, "are you fucking serious!?" he mumbled to himself.

"No" another voice replied. "Can I sit next to you?" startled, Sirius turned around to see a pretty sixth-year Slytherin girl called Maribella Barbonese standing behind him. He frowned.

"Why?" he asked, confused. She was an interesting person and not like the rest of the Slytherins at all. He would always be put next to her in classes with Slytherins that would have an alphabetical seating arrangement; like Transfiguration or Defence Against the Dark Arts. She was an olive-skinned girl with long, curly hair – Sirius always thought she was very attractive but she was a Slytherin.

"Because there's no one at my table" she replied simply. Sirius looked behind her toward the Slytherin table he saw that she was right. He nodded and she sat down. She put down a plate of food that she must have saved from earlier between them. "You can have some if you want," she offered, he always thought she was polite.

"Thank you" he said and took the croissant he'd been eyeing on her plate during their slightly-awkward exchange.

"How's your day been so far?" she asked. Caught off guard and with a mouth stuffed with croissant he replied hastily and not convincingly enough, "great, really great," but Barbonese squinted her ordinary brown eyes, she didn't believe him but she didn't press on the subject.

"That's good" she said. He watched her and she sipped on her glass of milk. Barbonese was an Italian pureblood and she was possibly the only Slytherin that anyone in Hogwarts liked because she didn't hold the same prejudiced beliefs as the rest, and she didn't enjoy jinxing random first years in the school corridors. Apparently, Italian's believe that being a pureblood isn't any different to being a muggleborn. Initially she was confused when she had the word 'mudblood' explained to her, he remembered her asking "why would someone even say that to someone?" Even if she wasn't like the rest of the Slytherins, Sirius often saw common Slytherin mannerisms in her: she could be very cold and manipulative when she wanted to be.

"Did you – um – did you go to Italy over the summer?" he asked, trying to keep the awkward away from the atmosphere.

"Yes, I did" she smiled.

"What do you do when you go there?"

"Well, my whole family live there so me and my parents go to visit them all. We also like going to the beach – they're much different to the ones in England." Sirius looked over her face and saw that she definitely had a tan. "What did you do –" she stopped herself, realising what she was about to ask him. Sirius straightened his back, determined to keep convincing people that he didn't care.

"I ran away from my family. No big deal, they were idiots." He said loudly, putting a smile on his face as he did so. She nodded, having nothing else to say. Sirius looked toward the entrance of the Great Hall and saw Remus, James and Peter standing there, clearly debating whether to approach him with Barbonese next to him or not. She seemed to notice as well so she quickly got up.

"Nice talking to you. Keep the plate, Black, you look peaky." She said bluntly, and walked off.

A few seconds later Sirius watched as Peter, James and Remus approached him with wide eyes. Peter spoke first, "what the hell are you doing? Did you actually invite a Slytherin to this table?"

"No – well, yes. No." he stuttered back.

"Yes or no, mate?" James asked, sitting down beside him with an amused look on his face.

"What, so I'm your mate now?" Sirius retorted, annoyed that James was acting normal as though he wasn't a stingy twat the day before.

"Yes." James said, quickly. He looked up and saw Remus looking at him with a disapproving look. "Alright, I'm sorry. I didn't listen to you and I assumed you were lying, sorry." Sirius shrugged. Remus clearly talked James into apologising to him.

"Barbonese just asked if she could sit next to me because no-one was at her table. I said yes. We only talked for about ten minutes, anyway." Sirius was now eating the sausage that she'd left him on the plate. Remus and Peter sat opposite them.

"She's the hottest Slytherin alive." Sirius cringed.

"Peter, never put the words 'hot' and 'Slytherin' in the same sentence, please" Sirius said with a disgusted look on his face.

"Hm, she is though. I think –"

"Okay, whatever" Sirius interrupted James. Sirius' plate suddenly disappeared, "fucking house-elves, I wasn't done." At that moment, Regulus Black walked in the hall with some other Slytherins. He caught Sirius' eye and winked quickly, then acted as though nothing had happened and walked off to the Slytheirn the table with his friends. "Let's go back to the common room. We have nothing to do today." He said, getting up abruptly.

* * *

Please leave a review telling me what you think of this chapter, I'd be forever grateful :)


End file.
